Prime Minister Keir Starmer has rejected Tony Blair’s claim that his government is on the wrong track, insisting that his policies are suited to the challenges of 2024, not 1997. Speaking at an apprentice training centre in west London, Starmer said: “You won’t be surprised to know that I don’t agree with much that Tony says about what the government is doing.”
Blair, in a lengthy essay published on Tuesday, accused Starmer of abandoning the centre ground and putting Labour’s future at risk. He argued that Starmer should have ditched manifesto pledges on workers’ rights and net zero, and supported Donald Trump’s attack on Iran. Starmer countered that Blair misunderstood the government’s successes and the “very different situation” he inherited.
“My response to Tony is, yes, it’s right to talk about policy, it’s right to talk about ideas; that’s where the debate should be. But actually, no, I don’t agree that the policy choices of this government weren’t the right policy choices, given what we inherited,” Starmer said. He claimed his policies had stabilised the economy, spread wealth creation, and improved public services.
Downing Street later published a near-3,000-word essay by Starmer, in which he acknowledged that the early mood of his government was “too negative” but maintained that “we got the big political choices right”. Meanwhile, Andy Burnham, a former Blair minister and potential Labour leadership challenger, also responded to Blair’s criticism. Writing in the Times, Burnham said Blair’s analysis suffered from a “gaping omission” of falling living standards since the 2008 financial crisis.
Burnham argued that deregulation, as advocated by Blair, was not the answer, and that “trickle-down economics did not in the end trickle down very much at all”. He highlighted his own policies in Greater Manchester, such as reversing bus deregulation, as evidence that “you can’t just leave it to the market”.
